Did Gov. Jan Brewer pick a fight with President Obama to sell books?
The subject of Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer and her finger-wagging tiff with President Obama is still burning up the Internet. Just go to Twitter and type in 鈥�Jan Brewer鈥� 鈥� the tweets will pile up faster than you can read them. It鈥檚 as if she鈥檚 suddenly become as Web-popular as Ron Paul.
So here鈥檚 the obvious question: Did she intend to have some sort of confrontation there Wednesday in front of the cameras at the Phoenix airport? We think probably not 鈥� in politics, as in life, happenstance usually explains more incidents than does conspiracy. But whatever her plan, Governor Brewer has benefited from Waggate in at least one respect: She鈥檚 selling a lot more books.
That鈥檚 right. Her memoir 鈥淪corpions for Breakfast鈥� was published last November to generally underwhelming sales. Earlier this week, as the 285,685th聽bestselling book in America. By way of comparison, , 鈥淭he Battle of the Crater,鈥� is currently No. 39,967.
But for a conservative Republican political author, there鈥檚 nothing like an appearance with Greta Van Susteren on Fox News Channel in which your book title gets mentioned. On Amazon鈥檚 bestseller list, 鈥淏reakfast with Scorpions鈥� on Friday was ... eighth! That鈥檚 an unbelievable jump. In terms of political bookmanship, that puts Brewer up there with Sarah Palin and 鈥淕oing Rogue.鈥�
Sarah Palin wrote the forward to 鈥淏reakfast with Scorpions,鈥� by the way. In it she calls Brewer a 鈥渄own-to-earth mom committed to public service and principled leadership.鈥� So Brewer is definitely a member of Ms. Palin鈥檚 "mama grizzly" club. Also, Brewer herself in the book calls New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie 鈥渋ncomparable,鈥� so maybe she鈥檚 one of those conservatives who is still hoping he jumps into the presidential race.
Anyway, of books critical of Obama policies are already pleading online with the White House to pass along a copy to the president, so he鈥檒l get peeved and argue in public with them, too. Next stop: Swiss bank account!
As to the letter Brewer handed Mr. Obama, which was the MacGuffin that got the tiff started, the Arizona governor belatedly decided to . It鈥檚 not exactly combative, in terms of political rhetoric: 鈥淲e both love this great country, but we fundamentally disagree on how to best make America grow and prosper once again,鈥� Brewer wrote.
As for Obama himself, he told ABC News Thursday that the incident was 鈥渁 classic example of things getting blown out of proportion.鈥� After reporters peppered him with questions on the subject, White House spokesman Jan Carney went further, saying, 鈥淚 really assume you guys have more important issues to cover than this.鈥�
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